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[Sorrow of Heaven] Mark of War
Posts
Magic weapon is a really solid power actually, but does require you to be pretty close to danger to get the most out of it.
Edit: And yes, you always get weapon/implement whatever expertise for free at level 5. This rule is one I'm never going to change unless Wizards does something drastic like update level charts or what have you.
You know, now you've got ME considering Halberd. Between Hafted Defense in PHB 3(+1 to AC and Reflex) and the two-hander feat for hobgoblins Aegeri wrote, I'd only lose 1 point of reflex between then, and gain reach. And it would be hilarious.
Running through some fights in module 1 with some guesstimates as to the party, I think 2 defenders, 2 leaders and 1 striker does okay. Albeit some fights are going to be pretty difficult.
Ryske, level 1
Drow, Rogue
Rogue Tactics: Brutal Scoundrel
Darkfire: Darkfire Charisma
Background: Deneith Mercenary (+2 to Intimidate)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 17, Con 10, Dex 18, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 13.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 17, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 11.
AC: 14 Fort: 13 Reflex: 16 Will: 11
HP: 22 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 5
TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +11, Thievery +9, Athletics +8, Perception +5, Intimidate +10, Acrobatics +9
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana -1, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, History -1, Insight, Nature, Religion -1, Streetwise +1
FEATS
Level 1: Versatile Duelist
POWERS
Rogue at-will 1: Deft Strike
Rogue at-will 1: Piercing Strike
Rogue encounter 1: Torturous Strike
Rogue daily 1: Pommel Smash
ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor, Dagger (5), Alchemist's Acid (level 1), Broadsword
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It also opens up Steel Vanguard whatever as a PP for you, which coupled with hafted defense would give you *more AC* than a sword/board Fighter. Although, Kensei is still probably better. Or Polearm master for fun, because fuck min/maxing sometimes.
Yeah that looks solid. Nice to see some consumables being bought before a billion levels have passed.
Jirroh Dhakaan, level 1
Hobgoblin, Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Prescience
Background: Eldeen Reaches
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 18.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 16.
AC: 16 Fort: 11 Reflex: 11 Will: 15
HP: 25 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 6
TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +4, Nature +8, Insight +8, Athletics +7, Intimidate +9
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics, Bluff +5, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +4, Endurance +1, Heal +4, History +2, Perception +4, Religion, Stealth, Streetwise +5, Thievery
FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Resourceful Leader
POWERS
Bard at-will 1: Staggering Note
Bard at-will 1: Jinx Shot
Bard encounter 1: Prophesied Strike
Bard daily 1: Arrow of Warning
ITEMS
Ritual Book, Chainmail, Longbow, Horn
RITUALS
Traveler's Chant, Create Campsite
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Otherwise it looks pretty sweet. I'll be bringing a lot of burst attacks to the table as well as few daze/immo/slow abilities. The level 24ish daily is sick. 3[w] + str dazed save ends. I shift 1 and repeat the attack to any target in reach up to three times. So, in theory I could dish 12[w] + (Str x 4) and 4 save ends daze. That's a nice damn power.
Also. The Githyanki Silver Weapon is sick. With a Daily free action on a hit I can use it to banish a foe to a demiplane as a save ends effect.
Prereqs are strength and constitution 15, so you'd meet those by level 30. Don't know why you can see it.
No! I must first finish my system dynamics! Step away, tempters!
rofl!
What is that thing?
After taking a second look I think I have room for plate and a decent will def.
I never thought I would be so excited to start over at level 1.
Also that thing is a little dog like animal from a movie called Dark Crystal. He's so cute!
Well, that and I kind of wish Dark Sun was coming out sooner so we could play that. But that's okay.
Compassion? Verax's solution to problems seems to be "Kill 'em all, let the gods sort it out."
I think you're mistaken. Verax is the Cleric, not the Barbarian.
Lain kills everything and lets the gods sort it out. Verax purifies the world of evil by any means necessary.
The compassion thing is going to come around a bit later. Basically, once his blood oath to slay Eve is done.
That will be at the end of the campaign most likely lol.
Well, she isn't actually really the thing that needs to be dealt with in that combat at the moment. She just makes live obscenely difficult.
You hear that Verax? You won't even get to kill her!
Man, if Verax were here he would be pissed.
In my mind, I figured we'd get to Mercurial, Eve would appear and free him. Then Verax would challenge her to a duel in a furious rage. Since it's likely she'd be a solo, Verax would then die and the rest of the group would have to fight her a man down.
But I guess that's not going to happen, now is it? Because Aegeri hates me and he hates Verax's character growth. I asked Aegeri around level 14 or so for a chance to speak to Torm again before epic tier so there'd be at least a tiny shred of justification for how Verax could suddenly be Torm's Chosen. But nope! None of that, so Verax gets to be a plain ol' demigod instead.
I think perhaps Aegeri exists to make Verax suffer. That's why Verax always takes the most damage (Aegeri uses separate macros that can't roll low against him), why he almost died against both Mr. Big Freakin' Dragon and Mr. Acid Hydra... it explains so much, really. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Aegeri secretly works for WotC and is responsible for the Righteous Brand nerf too.
What's the reason for all the hate, Aegeri? Is it because Verax keeps you from getting PKs? You want some more PKs? I'll just have Verax stop healing people all the time.
She is unable to enter Carceri at all actually, that's why she needed you do to so. If she could simply free him herself she would have done so.
At this point they would all be firmly dead afterwards as there is quite a level gap there as well
You'll get to speak to him shortly actually (assuming you don't all die horribly somewhere). Also, I think I explained at the time it's incredibly hard (actually almost impossible) to communicate with the gods in the current situation except directly (which is of course what will happen).
Don't forget Hero of Faith! Minding my nerfs are always kinder and gentler than Wizards nerfs are
Also, you should blame Rysk for nearly being eaten by Mortis because he encouraged you to mark the monster
Nice try Aegeri, but you can't snow the snowman. I've seen the Xanatos Gambit pulled way too many times to not see myself walking into one. You're just lucky Verax isn't quite so literary as I am.
And this is supposed to make me feel better how?
Hey, just 5-6 levels too late.
Oh yeah, like you didn't specifically put the Hydra (with threatening reach, as you made it clear) one shift away from Verax and a full move action away from Orin by coincidence. I know your modus operandi, and that is to punish a character played by Terrendos.
I suspect that Rysk does the same thing only he's not as good at hiding it yet, hence the now-infamous Unstunning the Dryad incident and others like it.
Well, that's not going to be very useful in this module
Well, they would be all horribly dead with you! And probably very confused because she couldn't have got in there given everything I've mentioned about the place.
Then again I am the prince(cess?) of lies!
Unfortunately much of what I planned went a little by the wayside when I was ill last year, so I accelerated certain things and put in a dungeon crawl where I could catch up with my writing. This did sort of get in the way of many of the story elements I wanted to do, but actual interaction with the gods directly was not something I really intended before level ~25 very much.
All 3 main melee characters were within Mortis' initial reach actually, he has a really long reach so he wasn't within a shift of Verax - because he needed to make use of his threatening reach. Also, you went before the Hydra did and Orin right afterwards.
I haven't killed Tavar half as much as I should have now you mention it
Edit: It does occur to me that I have TWO leaders in this game. That's going to give the monsters a headache.
Edit2: Also, stronger adoption and running of character stories into the overall campaign arc is a priority of Mark of War. It's far more protagonist driven than my usual way of writing, so marks a big departure from nearly every campaign I've written before - which were primarily antagonist driven.
Now either this was a huge coincidence, or you planned it. And we both know there's no coincidences in D&D except for the dice. But it makes sense you'd go after me. After all, I get crit the most. It's evident that Maptools hates me when it comes to enemy attacks. I'm practically the party's lynch-pin, what with the healing I dole out every encounter. My huge investment in my defenses has yielded negligible benefit (how is Orin's AC so much higher than mine anyway? I guess he's got +6 armor but that still doesn't seem like enough) and my predilection for getting Verax in over his head is nothing short of terrifying.
I'm not mad, Aegeri. I'm just disappointed. I guess I assumed that it would be karmic if the cleric of Justice actually got to deliver some. Literary characters like Verax only really have 2 endings: either they manage to overcome their personal flaws and triumph in a meaningful way (Odysseus, for example, whose clever thinking won him back his home and his family, or Aeneas, whose bravery and devotion to the gods won him a new home and helped him slay the jealous Turnus), or they get tossed aside, thrown into the Charybdis and dashed against the rocks in a tragic end (Oedipus, Theseus, Hector, Orpheus). I suppose I was just hoping for the former.
Only one and he did get a swing at you as well! Be fair to me now! Plus he got a swing at Lain as well. Also, like most monsters his multiple attack power isn't MBA. That would be sadistic.
The actual bite attack itself doesn't do a lot of damage actually, it's more the huge number of attacks he gets that can stack up damage.
Nah. He was on the other side of the ice bridge, but nobody was moving forwards. So if you remember I said "Time to take the initiative" and dumped Mortis roughly in the middle of the party.
I think that Orin has +6 Godplate armour, and you've got the +5 armour that isn't the AC boost one. Once you have the next +6 suit of armour above what you have now there will be less of a gap. Also remember that Orin gets a further +1 bonus to AC when he's in Avalanche Stance as well.
Yes, there are plenty of people who could use it as well. There is a good reason why this game is extending the level 30 out quite a bit compared to how other epic tier campaigns do things
Also, if anyone is curious the original progression pre-illness from last year (and how I wrote around that) was:
Sigil -> Celestia -> Edentia* -> Carceri
So I actually changed a huge amount at that point.
*All that work, all gone now. Sigh.
Also in terms of smiting, I think I should remind everyone (sadly, things did not go as I wanted sigh) that the following all need to be dealt with:
Myrkul (He's a general dick), Abaddon (Infecting children, rampant murder, trying to kill you several times), Lilith (Trying to murder you, spreading disease, being a general dick - Deneira hated her as well), Orcus (You stole his statue) and Jerusha (She just really doesn't like you for the whole killing her thing).
So many horrible abominations to smite. Not enough time. Anyway, further talk of SoH plot can go in the relevant thread. This is about my new campaign
It's just that, remember, my paladin worships a god of war. What kind of Paladin would I be if I didn't take Wrath of the Gods as my level 6 utility? Of course, between Aegeri's feats, I'll end up with +4 damage for a couple of fairly strong feats.
TSI, I don't think there'll be a problem with you going halberd. Two Leaders and another Defender mean you've definitely got backup, and we'll probably be a bit light on damage anyway to going with a +damage build really can't hurt us.
@TSI That sounds like a good plan. Two leaders though with good damage bonuses should compensate the lack of an extra striker.
Unfortunately, it only gives flanking to the polearm-er, so no good for the rogue. That said, I will definitely move up close to flank. Stop acting like I won't!